If you read our book "The Healthy Indian Diet" or this blog before, you know we are all about a low-carb diet guy. Let me clarify what I mean by "low-carb": I mean all carbohydrate-rich foods that are processed or overly fried or cooked.

So the bad carbs are fried snacks ("nasta"), chips, cookies, sweets, anything with lots of sugar added to it. Cutting this out or down is being "low-carb."

Also "low-carb" means white rice and refined wheat ("flour"), which are foods that almost every Indian, American, and really anybody on earth eats because these processed staples are in most modern diets. Besides being of little or no nutritional value (because the nutrients are largely removed to make profits better for makers and sellers, with no regard to the people who will eat them), these "bad" carbs" make you fatter because of how quickly glucose affects insulin levels in your body.

What about fruits and vegetables? This is what we call "Plants", and are the "good" carbs. Eat them! Legumes ("dals") too. Now, you may say, 'Hey, fruits contain sugar, and vegetables are carbs too!' This is true, but there is a lot of nutrition in these plants, and they do your body a lot of good. And for weight loss issues, the fiber (soluble and insoluble) found in fruits and vegetables will help you lose body fat and keep your body lean.

Rule #3: Eat Plants

Consider the Harvard study I mentioned in the last post. Among 120,000 people whose diets and weight loss or weight gain were analyzed, those who ate fruits, vegetables, and whole grains (brown rice, whole grain bread) lost between 1/2 and 1/4 lbs (1/10 and 1/4 kg) every 4 years. Doesn't sound like much, especially compared to almost a whole lb (1/2 kg) lost by regular yogurt eaters. But consider that people who ate plants lost weight, while the average person in the same study gained about 3-1/2 lbs (1-1/2 kg) every 4 years.

And consider the "A to Z Weight Loss Study" from Stanford University. There they compared four diets, including a low-carb high-fat/high-protein diet ("Atkins") and a high-good carb low-fat diet ("Ornish" and "LEARN") by looking at weight loss and blood lipids (i.e., blood fats) in pre-menopausal overweight/obese women without diabetes over 12 months.

Guess who lost the most weight in this trial? The women who adhered to the low-carb ("Atkins") diet, which includes an induction period of 2-3 months of very low carb and then a relaxing of the low-carb rules for the remainder, lost the most -- 4.7 kg (10-1/2 lbs), while the women on low-fat diets lost 2.2 and 2.6 kg (5 and 6 lbs) over 1 year.

An important corollary in this series on losing weight is that you should eat more plants while following other advice in this series. As the "A to Z" trial shows, a low-fat diet that is high in good carbs (not bad carbs) is still not as effective for losing weight as a true low-carb diet that is also high in fats and proteins.

Still, eating lots of plants -- as opposed to processed or overly cooked carbs -- give you lots of fiber, helping you prevent from becoming fat because fiber prevents too much glucose from entering your bloodsteam. Plants also give you nutrients you don't get in crap food.

After a short induction period where you cut out all bad carbs and many good carbs, which will help accelerate weight loss, the Healthy Indian knows it is important to eat plants, as much as you can, to lose body fat.

Disclaimer: The facts, advice and opinion on www.healthyindiandiet.com are based on scientific evidence published in journals. However, no content should be construed as medical advice. You should seek the counsel of your physician before making changes based on the content, especially if you have a medical condition.

This site is for people who want to eat healthy and love Indian food. Consult your physician before making changes to your diet. To the fullest extent of the law, neither the publisher or authors assume any liability for consequences to persons or property arising out of or related to any use of the material on this website.